Young Voices Spokane Area Children’s Chorus Sends Ensemble Choir On Trip To Austria, Hungary

The 35 children in the Ensemble Choir of the Spokane Area Children’s Chorus all have different goals for their summer. “I want to do a tour of the place where ‘The Sound of Music’ was filmed,” said Leslie Ogden, 16, of Spokane.

“My piano teacher wants a picture of me in front of the house where Mozart lived,” said Martin Kearney-Fischer, 10, of Spokane.

Hmm. Do you detect a pattern here?

Both of these goals can be fulfilled only in Austria, which is where these 35 children will be heading on Saturday, along with an entourage of parents, chaperones and musicians. The group, 71 in all, including the entire Spokane String Quartet, will visit Vienna, Salzburg, Graz and Innsbruck in Austria, as well as a side trip to Budapest, Hungary. They will return 12 days later, on July 3.

The children also have some more universal goals.

“Shopping,” said Aislinn Smith, 13.

“Yes,” said Hannah Kendrick, 12. “Definitely shopping.”

Yet the true unifying goal is music. The Ensemble Choir, which is the most advanced choir of the 180-person strong Spokane Area Children’s Chorus, will stage six different concerts while in Europe. Their voices will ring out at Karlskirche and Esterhazy Castle in Vienna, Matthias Church in Budapest, the main square in Graz, the St. Andra Church in Salzburg and a music school in Innsbruck.

Their visit is part of a summer-long “American Musical Salute to Austria,” in which numerous American musical groups will help Austria celebrate its 1,000th birthday as a sovereign nation. The choir had to submit audition tapes and then hope for an invitation. When the invitation arrived about a year ago, the exhilaration was mingled with terror. The only trip they had ever taken was to Seattle one year.

“We thought, ‘Wow, how can we pull this one off?”’ said executive director Bill Mays.

By getting to work right away and raising funds. The cost of the trip is about $2,400 per student. About $1,000 per student was raised in a year’s worth of fund-raisers. The chorus recorded and sold a Christmas CD, “Angels and Candlelight,” staged several benefit concerts and sold 480 Entertainment coupon books.

The parents had to pony up the balance of the cash.

“To give your children this opportunity, you kind of sacrifice a bit,” said parent and board member Mike Cantlon. “You find a way to save money; find a way to put money away.”

The children made their own sacrifices. With the fund-raising schedule and the twice-a-week rehearsal schedule, their lives have been dominated by The Trip.

“I wanted to play softball this year, but I couldn’t because we practice twice a week,” said Aislinn, a Sacajawea Middle School student. “But I’d rather take Europe than softball. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance.”

The Trip took on even more importance - and more status in the Spokane musical community - with the addition of the Spokane String Quartet.

“We asked if they would like to do a benefit concert with us, and they started dropping hints that they would like to go on the trip with us,” said Tamara Schupman, music director of the Spokane Area Children’s Chorus. “I let it go, because I found it hard to believe that four grown-up people would want to go to Europe with 35 children.”

“But the people in the quartet are really jazzed about it,” said Mays.

The quartet will perform with the choir and then will stay on in Europe for their own performances in Munich, Hannover and Kreuth/ Tegernsee in Germany.

The itinerary, which is arranged by a professional tour company, includes visits to many famous sites. The children will see the Vienna State Opera, the Schonbrunn Palace, the Esterhazy Castle, Graz’s Old Quarter, Innsbruck’s Old City, Budapest’s Parliament, and the graves of Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms and Schubert. And, yes, they will tour the place where “The Sound of Music” was filmed and the house where Mozart lived.

Yet the real focus is on performance.

“Our message is that we’re going to have fun, but essentially this is a work trip,” said Schupman. “The kids are really singing beautifully now. It’s humbling for us to perform music on the same ground on which it was composed.”

About 20 parents will be coming along, which is just fine with Mays and Schupman, although they received conflicting advice on that subject.

“We had advice from other choruses who said, ‘Do not under any circumstances take parents,”’ said Schupman. “Others said, ‘The more the merrier.”’

Many of the families are using the trip as a springboard for a longer European trip.

“We’re actually leaving a week before and going to Italy,” said Leslie, a Ferris High School sophomore.

As departure day approaches, the children’s imaginations are running at presto speeds.

“Sometimes it will leave my mind for a while at school,” said Hannah. “Then I will get home and it’s the only thing I can think of.”

And already, the brain trust of the Spokane Area Children’s Chorus is speculating about their next trip, to some undetermined place in some undetermined year.

“We’re dreamers around here,” said Mays. “We think way out.” , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo